Vosburg looks back on county board power struggles

After enduring two years of tumult as the first Board of Commissioners chair under Macomb County’s new charter/executive form of government, Kathy Vosburg cringes when reflecting on the battles between the board and County Executive Mark Hackel, and she flashes a bemused smile when told that officials on both sides have pledged to “hit the reset button.”

The power struggle that emerged in late 2011 grew into very public, ugly fights over budgets, ethics, personnel appointments, purchasing policies and approval of government contracts.

The contracting issue led to an intense court fight between Hackel and the commissioners — with Vosburg as the point person for the board, refusing to give an inch.

When the board emerged victorious at the Court of Appeals, winning the right to play a role in contracting and purchasing, an uneasiness simmered just below the surface.

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Five weeks into 2013 the numerous efforts by the executive office to marginalize the commissioners — and the board’s eagerness to fight back — seem to have ended in a cease fire.

The new board chair, Sterling Heights Democrat Dave Flynn, was selected for the top spot on a partisan 9-4 vote in January. Though Vosburg lost, she stressed that no partisan divide exists when the issue is the balance of powers within county government. “I’d say right now he has 13 votes,” said the Chesterfield Township Republican.

Vosburg recalls that the commissioners were united throughout the court fight over contracting and purchasing policies. And the unity only grew stronger when petty fights between the board and the executive reached the point where the only communication between the two branches of government was via voice mail and email.

“One commissioner making one negative comment at a committee meeting would cause the entire board office to be shut out of all communication,” said Vosburg, who was easily re-elected to another 2-year term on the board in November.

Hackel and his top aides have repeatedly said that the commissioners were in denial, resisting the fact that they no longer hold the executive powers, the control of day-to-day management, within the new system.

But Charter Commissioners who wrote the voter-approved county charter have expressed to Vosburg their disappointment with the rough start for the new government. And some in the business community who supported the charter/executive format have been dismayed that they still have to deal with various departments to win approval for certain projects.

“That reflected the view of his (Hackel’s) advisers who thought the executive office would be this one-stop-shop,” she said.

Going forward, Vosburg advocates some technical changes to the budget and to the purchasing process.

“There are no glaring holes, we just need to have some things fixed,” the former chair said.

At a January meeting with several commissioners, both sides agreed that a top priority is a need for better communication. Flynn wants twice-monthly meetings but Vosburg would be pleased if the new chair could simply manage a basic monthly get-together.

Promises of monthly meetings between the board chair and Hackel lasted just two months after the executive first took office in January 2011.

Hackel told reporters in December that his New Year’s resolution was to take a much more cordial and cooperative approach with the commissioners. At a Macomb County Chamber of Commerce forum last week, the executive emphasized that the fighting is over.

“It was obvious that we’d have issues in a new form of government with dividing legislative and executive responsibilities,” Hackel said. “The … problem was: Who’s responsible for what?”

Flynn said he and Hackel have “hit the reset button” and have promised a new era of cooperation and collaboration between the executive and legislative branches.

“In the beginning it was somewhat rocky, but it was not personal, it was about substantive issues,” Flynn said. “My … pledge to the executive office is that we will work things out in an adult way.”

Vosburg remains skeptical.

“I don’t think the tone (set by Hackel) has ever helped him,” Vosburg concluded. “I think the public is sick of it. They voted for the charter and they want it to work.”